the
ISSUE 4 SHAWNEE MISSION EAST PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KS OCTOBER 19, 2009
IF THEY GROW IT
WILL YOU COME? Cafeterias face dilema between locallygrown and mass-produced food
T
>>DuncanMcHenry
he chicken nuggets sold in the East cafeteria typically come from plants in North Carolina or Pennsylvania, according to Gary Mickelson, media contact for Tyson Foods. The nuggets are produced and immediately frozen to zero degrees Fahrenheit, before traveling hundreds of miles to a distribution warehouse, then hundreds more to East. According to Diana Endicott, head of the local organization Good Natured Family Farms, which supplies local stores like Hen House with a variety of products such as beef, chicken, milk and produce, the local farmers she works with produce all of their meat within a 200 mile radius of Prairie Village. Their produce comes from within a 40 to 45 mile radius, barely an hour’s drive away. They don’t freeze any of their products because they arrive at their destination within 24 hours of being shipped. School districts around the country have begun integrating locally grown products such as these into their cafeteria menus.
Many of these districts are allied with the Farm to School organization, a national group that aims to connect schools with local farmers. These districts have found that aside from knowing exactly where the foods students are eating come from and how they are produced, there are a variety of other important benefits to buying locally. Primarily, buying locally grown food greatly shortens the distance that products must travel before reaching a school. According to Endicott, when foods such as fruits and vegetables are shipped over long distances they start losing nutritional value and taste after about 24 hours. This is due to changing conditions and the amount of time spent in transit. Currently, East doesn’t purchase any locally farmed foods, and many of the cafeteria products travel long distances, from as far as Pennsylvania or California by truck before reaching the school. According to District Food Services Manager Nancy Coughenour, the SMSD purchases the majority of its cafeteria food from a small group of large distribution
companies known as “prime venders,” such as U.S. Foodservice. These venders provide the school’s perishable items such as milk and produce. By the time a product reaches East from one of these distribution companies, it has changed hands several times. First, the product must be shipped from the farm to the distribution company’s warehouse where it is stored for an indefinite amount of time before being shipped to the school. According to the Center for Food Safety, large American distribution companies such as these truck their products an average of about 1500 miles before they reach a local grocery store or cafeteria. Another benefit to buying local food is that it helps area farmers economically, according to Tony Schwager, a local beekeeper and owner of the company Anthony’s Bee Hive. Schwager’s company is allied with Endicott’s Good Natured Family Farms.
>>photo illustration by Mackenzie Wylie